Circus Vargas opens in Vallejo Thursday

Jon Weiss said he's been shot out of a cannon some 5,500 times during his 30 years with the circus. Retired as a human cannonball, Weiss now hosts the Circus Vargas "extravaganza" running Thursday through Monday at the Solano County Fairgrounds.

This is Circus Vargas' second year in Vallejo after a 30-some-year hiatus, and the second year opening day is Annual Community Heroes Night. That's when first responders and hospital/medical personnel can get two tickets for the price of one, with valid proof of employment, a spokeswoman said.

Weiss, 52, said he and his family travel with the circus, performing with a large cast of characters all over California, Arizona and Nevada.

That sense of extended family seems to be a common thread running through many of the circus folk, who spoke to the Times-Herald as they worked to erect the Big Top in advance of Thursday's opening night.

"I'm from New York, but our people are from all over; from Austria, Italy, Russia, Brazil, Argentina, Columbia, Kenya," Weiss said. "We have clowns, illusionists, acrobats, dare devils, trapeze and trampoline artists," and others.

Trudy Arata and her husband, Vittorio, have been with various circuses for decades, and in fact, met at a circus, she said.

"We've been 18 years with this circus, but I came from Europe as a trampoline and acrobat act," the Austria native said. "My husband walked the high wire."

Arata said she came to Las Vegas for a show and decided to stay in the country. But she never considered leaving the life.

"When you're born in the circus, then you're conditioned," she said, adding that her own parents were also circus performers.

Former trapeze flyer Patricia Marinelli said her son and grandson are the fifth and sixth generation circus workers in her family. As a member of the Circus Vargas owner family, Marinelli also spent years as part of the Flying Tabares trapeze act.

"My great grandmother was the first, I think, in Uruguay, originally," the Argentina native said. "The best part is we're all together, the whole family, 24 hours a day. We travel, work, live and even school is done right here in the circus. That's the way of all the generations of the family."

A Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Clown College graduate, Weiss said his wife and three children also travel with the circus, some as performers and others in the office.

"I'm an American, so I'm in the minority," he said. "We may not all speak the same language, but we all share the language of the circus," he said. "And we all work together to put on a magnificent show."

Weiss said the early discovery of an innate ability to "balance anything on my nose and chin" – a talent with which he entertained people – eventually prompted someone to pass on information about clown college and lead to the circus life he chose.

"It was either this or the military, which was my father's suggestion, and I'm glad I chose this," he said. "I love everything about it. People who come to the circus as children, they remember that."

Weiss said the performers pride themselves on "creating memories" with their interactive show.

"We're creating lifelong memories and I treasure my part of that," he said. "They're usually family memories, and we sometimes don't do enough of that, as a society."

Weiss describes life with the circus as "more of a lifestyle than just a job," in which you "live and work together in an environment we create."

Each event starts with a pre-show show, "for kids of all ages," where children are brought inside the ring to learn some of the basics of circus performing – juggling, hula hoop, balance – "to give them an idea what it's like to perform in the ring," Weiss said.

Though he's given up hurtling from a cannon at 65 miles per hour, traveling 130 feet in three seconds, Weiss said he can't imagine giving up the circus.

"I love what I do," he said. "People take something away from every show."